“We’re not in the business of funding content,” says Telus Mobility executive

Wireless phone carriers, as demonstrated by Telus Mobility, are actively seeking more content to fill their pipes, but content producers in the new media space will need to show the promise of incremental revenues and be willing to pay for access to the network to take advantage of the opportunity. In an interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Telus Mobility’s VP of products and services Robert Blumenthal says it’s not his intention to begin funding the development of content, but his company is actively evaluating proposals from producers to fill the pipes with new entertainment and business applications. As far as Telus Mobility is concerned, the wireless web can be broken down into the following four components: content downloads, application downloads, enhanced micro-browser content, and picture messaging. The first, content downloads, include such items as ringtones and images. But, Blumenthal says, several hurdles have yet to be cleared before the model takes full shape. He says the first step, getting access to archives of popular content, has been achieved. Now Telus Mobility is taking the next step of being able to offer new content in conjunction with partners in a more timely fashion. For example, he says, Telus Mobility was able to offer downloads tied to the film Finding Nemo on the same day that the film opened. Digital rights issues are solved, Blumenthal says, by the nature of the carrier’s architecture. It is all but impossible, he says, to break outside the straight Telus Mobility server to handset download path that has been established. Content providers with downloads to offer have only to talk to the national wireless carrier, he says, to be considered for a partnership. Blumenthal stresses that they don’t have to be the size of the Walt Disney Co. to strike the company’s interest, though Telus Mobility does place some providers higher in the priority chain. "At the end of the day, it does come down to how to interact with these people. We’re going to prioritize these people according to who has the most value, the largest libraries of content," Blumenthal says. Application downloads relate mostly to business applications in the Java environment. To source those, Blumenthal says, Telus Mobility will work with software publishers that can vouch for the reliability and functionality of the programs. With regard to consumer entertainment applications, Telus Mobility is most keenly interested in games, whether strategy, multi-player or other. Messaging applications that improve the user experience are also high on the list of priorities. In fact, messaging has overtaken micro-browser applications as the most commonly used of Telus Mobility’s offerings, Blumenthal notes. He says that the most exciting games are those that involve a messaging component to create communities of interest around certain applications. No hype for WAP 2.0One of the areas that requires the most work, he says, is enhanced micro-browsing using WAP 2.0 - an evolution from the first generation of micro-browsers that have failed to excite consumers to the extent carriers were expecting. "That’s the one that needs the most encouragement on behalf of our partners. In the first round of WAP, everyone was so excited. It was somewhat overhyped and people didn’t get what they thought they were going to get. So, to say, ‘here’s the new and improved,’ is harder. But it is new and improved and I think the market is increasingly more aware of the services and there’s lots of usage and therefore people are more amenable to using it." Telus Mobility and the other wireless carriers are still working out the rights issues in the final category of services, picture messaging. Blumenthal says the company can’t do much but warn users that they shouldn’t use camera-phones to transmit images of copyrighted works. To develop these applications, however, Telus Mobility says it’s not in the business of funding content and it continues to argue for a business model that has proven frustrating to content developers in the new media sector. "Our primary view of what we do is bringing our three million subscribers as a base of potential users to the table. And then we’re a distribution channel for stuff," Blumenthal says. "Our business model is pretty simple. If people are willing to pay incrementally for this stuff and they do, then we will take care of all the billing and settlements and all that other stuff, and get paid by the developer or application provider and take a distribution fee. "Where we come to interesting loggerheads with content providers is when they say they come with a huge community, and we should give it away, and we should pay them. We say, actually, no. We bring access and billing and settlements and all that other stuff, and you want access to our three million subscribers. As long as they are willing to pay incrementally for your product, you should be happy and we should be happy. But if they’re not willing to pay incrementally for your product, we’re certainly not going to carry all that traffic for free for them." Blumenthal doesn’t close the door to partnerships with content developers that have recently been enjoying convergence success, especially with broadcasters in Canada. But he does say Telus Mobility won’t provide more than the pipes and billing services for those producers. "If people have good content - if there’s a market for that, and people produce the content, we will be happy to facilitate the ability to interact (at the) intersection of mobility users and fans…The wireless carriers are not going out and paying for content to be produced," he says. "Even in the most sophisticated markets - there’s one market I know where the carrier actually did fund the content that was specifically designed for wireless. But it was kind of a one-time let’s prove the point and then let other people do it activity. We’re not in the content business. At most, we would fund proof-of-concept. Beyond that, as far as the Canadian environment is concerned, I’m not sure we’d fund proof-of-concept because it’s being proved out around the world and the carriers are now kind of getting on and doing it."

“We’re not in the business of funding content,” says Telus Mobility executive

News | 06/13/2003 4:00 am EDT

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